IBM Granite lists 3 models and Particle Ai 1. IBM Granite is cheaper on a typical model ($0.06 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| IBM Granite | Particle Ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 3 | 1 |
| Models with published pricing | 3 | 1 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.06 | $0.44 |
| Cheapest paid model | IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro ($0.04) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| Longest context | IBM: Granite 4.1 8B (131K) | Particle AI: Particle-1 (1.0M) |
| Free models | 0 | 0 |
| Newest model | IBM: Granite 4.2 8B (2026-08-31) | Particle AI: Particle-1 (2026-10-28) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 5 | 0 |
For each workload: the cheapest model from each provider that can actually do it (fits the context window; tool calling required for the agent), and its monthly cost at list price.
| Workload (per month) | IBM Granite | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $3.52 with IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro | $38.75 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $3.16 with IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro | $40.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | $7.20 with IBM: Granite 4.1 8B | $42.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $2.03 with IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro | $26.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $0.96 with IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro | $13.50 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| You need | IBM Granite | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro ($0.04) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With tool calling | IBM: Granite 4.1 8B ($0.06) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With image input | none listed | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With reasoning mode | IBM: Granite 4.2 8B ($0.08) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| 128K+ context | IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro ($0.04) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| 1M+ context | none listed | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| Model type | IBM Granite | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 0 | 1 |
| text->text | 3 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | IBM Granite | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 3 | 1 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 0 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
IBM Granite is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.06 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.44 for Particle Ai. The cheapest paid models are IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro at $0.04 and Particle AI: Particle-1 at $0.44.
It depends on the job: IBM Granite offers the broader line-up (3 models vs 1), IBM Granite the lower typical price, Particle Ai the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
IBM Granite: IBM Granite lists 3 models and Particle Ai lists 1.
Particle Ai: IBM Granite's longest is IBM: Granite 4.1 8B at 131K tokens; Particle Ai's is Particle AI: Particle-1 at 1.0M.
Neither lists a free model; both are pay-per-token.
IBM Granite: 0 of 3 models accept images. Particle Ai: 1 of 1.